... but during the course of recurrent training it is depressing to find out how many pilots do not understand the need to calculate the mass of the helicopter at the pref-flight panning stage.
The pilot did a good job in getting everyone on board back safe and well, including the 'fixed wing' co pilot (gee you Americans??) However, if he's been flying that S76B overweight on a regular basis then that is doubly unforgivable. If he had arrived at the platform with HOGE mass he may well have gotten away without a ditching. (HOGE is a good target mass if you have no Cat A offshore profile data to work with. Not perfect but better than arriving close to MCGW with no account taken of the ambient conditions).
Will anything change ? Na... don't be silly Geoffrey.
PS. I wonder if that was one of the KLM-ERA ships that Rowan inherited in 1998 when they pulled out of the European market.
G